§ Statement of Purpose

The View from 1776 presents a framework to understand present-day issues from the viewpoint of the colonists who fought for American independence in 1776 and wrote the Constitution in 1787. Knowing and preserving those understandings, what might be called the unwritten constitution of our nation, is vital to preserving constitutional government. Without them, the bare words of the Constitution are just a Rorschach ink-blot that politicians, educators, and judges can interpret to mean anything they wish.

"We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, to the Officers of the First Brigade, Third Division, Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798.

§ American Traditions

§ People and Ideas

§ Decline of Western Civilization: a Snapshot

§ Books to Read

§ BUY MY BOOK

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Al Gore’s Cable Network

One more liberal-socialist tool to convert young students to the religion of socialism.

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Last week, as part of an investment group, Al Gore bought the cable channel Newsworld International. Most news stories dwell on the fact that it has a relatively small audience and is carried by a limited number of outlets. This makes it too easy to overlook what’s in store.

Mr. Gore announced that his intention is to focus on the 18-to-34 age group audience, with “appropriate” programming. Given the difficulties in challenging the much bigger cable networks for advertising sponsorship, as well as the cost of developing programming, it seems doubtful that Mr. Gore and his investment group have invested their reported $70 million for purely commercial purposes.

Why then have these political liberals put up that much money?

The answer, we can speculate, is to extend the reach of education for the purpose of proselytizing young students and converting them to the religion of socialism. In that respect, it will serve the same purpose as the public educational system now does.

With the leverage of Federal funding, arising from President Johnson’s Great Society Elementary and Secondary Education bill, public education has been woefully degraded by teachers unions, Federal courts, and textbook review committees. Local control of education by parents and local school boards is a thing of the past. Hard subject matter is slighted in favor of socializing courses designed to teach students that individualism is selfish greed, that cooperative collectivism is the only socially acceptable attitude. Students are no longer taught using the great classics of Western literature that supplied examples of moral courage and civic virtue. Instead, they are taught that any action is acceptable, if it works for the student, because declaring actions to be right or wrong is to make an unscientific value judgment.

What Mr. Gore no doubt will attempt is a repetition of socialist philosopher John Dewey’s masterly corruption of public education. Recognizing that public education has delivered several generations, since the late 1960s, who are unable to read, or uninterested in doing so, Gore’s Newsworld International will use the new broadband media to snare them.